Why Can’t They Build More Homes Where the Jobs Are?

July 13, 2017

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Patrick Clark - Bloomberg

In a logical world, builders would rush to put up homes in the U.S. regions adding jobs at the fastest pace. In reality, it's not so simple.

San Francisco's metropolitan area added 373,000 net new jobs in the last five years—but issued permits for only 58,000 units of new housing. The lack of new construction has exacerbated housing costs in the Bay Area, making the San Francisco metro among the cruelest markets in the U.S. Over the same period, Houston added 346,000 jobs and permitted 260,000 new dwellings, five times as many units per new job as San Francisco.